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For a few, there is one final but essential task to perform. Buddhists believe in the concept of rebirth, and at Kailash the journey from one life to the next is marked with an ancient but outlandish ritual.

Tibetans believe there's no need to keep or bury the bodies of their dead, since a departed life will already have kindled a new one elsewhere.

The word for burial in Tibetan means "giving offerings to the birds", an act of generosity in line with the concept of compassion for all beings.

By doing good deeds, Buddhists believe that they can contribute to the process of enlightenment. So a sky burial at Kailash contributes to a brighter future. There may be legends of mythical mountains and rivers that form the "axis of the world". But the Tibetan plateau itself, with its mountains, glaciers, and rivers, and as the engine that drives the monsoon, lays fair claim to being the real axis of the world. Apart from feeding the rivers of India and Pakistan, Tibet's glaciers are the source of even more great rivers.

Vietnam's Mekong, Burma's Salween and the Yangtze and the Yellow, both of which flow into China.

对一些人来说，这里只有一个重要的终极目标。佛教徒相信有轮回，认为在卡伊拉什山，从今生到来世的路上，都有古代神秘仪式的印迹。西藏人认为没有必要保存或埋葬他们的尸体，因为死亡的人已经在其他地方获得了新生。藏语中的埋葬的意思是“施舍喂鸟，这种行为和他们怜悯一切生灵的观念是一致。佛教徒相信行善有益于他们的教化，所以在卡伊拉什天葬能获得更好的未来。或许世界屋脊由关于山的神话和河流构成。但是青藏高原本身，还有它的山峦、冰川、河流。作为季风的推动者，是名副其实的世界屋脊。除了是印度和巴基斯坦的源头，西藏的冰川还是更多主要河流的源头。越南的湄公河，缅甸的怒江雅鲁藏布江和黄河，都流经中国。